WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO MY BABY AND ME?

Blood sugar is used for energy. A small rise in the blood sugar after a meal is normal, an excessive rise is not. When your blood sugar is too high, the extra sugar is shared with your baby. When the baby gets too much sugar from you, the baby stores it as fat. This is why some women with gestational diabetes have very large babies (macrosomia). These babies are at risk for having a rapid drop in their blood sugar right after birth. This is not healthy and these babies may need to go to a special care area such as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)

Besides being hard to carry, large babies are more difficult to deliver. Sometimes there are birth injuries to both mom and baby. The baby's arm or shoulder could be injured during delivery. Nerve damage to the face and arms can also happen. If your baby is very large, you can have vaginal (birth canal) injuries. To avoid birth injuries, some women will need a cesarean section (sometimes called a c-section). A cesarean section means the baby is delivered by surgery

When blood sugars are too high, the baby gets less oxygen. Some babies do not handle this stress well. This is thought to be one of the reasons for stillbirths (when a baby dies before birth). These facts are not meant to frighten you. Today, with good health care, these things do not happen very often.

Source: Sweet Success, California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program? CDAPP, 2014